Cold Like Fire
by StrangeSpark
Summary: A young girl and her autobot guardian have set out to rendezvous with NEST. But when her past is revealed,as well as the secret behind the markings on her body, it could mean a very ugly end for the human race. Post ROTF. On Hiatus. I'm so sorry guys, see my profile for more info.
1. Chapter 1

_**Do not own Transformers, Hasbro does.**_** Enjoy zee storee!**

**20 miles west of Santa Fe, New Mexico**

Suri Cortez woke up in pitch blackness. As usual, she had a headache. Ignoring it, she groaned into a sitting position. The white tank-top she wore felt cold against her skin. She flipped on the lamp beside the bed, bathing the hotel room in a warm glow. The scars on her arms and chest seemed to give off an icy blue light of their own. Of course, Suri knew that her "scars" were really alterations in her skin pigmentation that just happened to form alien symbols. It was just easier to say that they were scars. The runic symbols covered her entire body except her face. They were one of many results of a near death encounter with a Decepticon named Starscream. One day, disguised as an F/A 22 Raptor USAF Fighter Jet, the alien robot crashed head on into Suri's North Carolina home, killing her parents and her unborn brother.

Thinking of that day five years ago, Suri felt a shiver run up her spine. Unusually, she found she could no longer cry since her family's funeral. But since then, she and her best friend and guardian, Diesel, had tracked Starscream all over the western hemisphere. However, since yesterday, Diesel had lost Starscream's signal and they were stuck in a small town outside Santa Fe.

Suri rubbed he eyes and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. She padded over to the sink and splashed her face with cold water. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she shuddered. The alien markings began at the nape of her neck and ran down her body like a waterfall. She looked at her hands, where the symbols ran in spirals up each finger. Disgusted, she turned away from the mirror.

After going through the motions of a regular morning, Suri tucked her father's old handgun into her jacket, pulled on her black gloves and walked out the hotel room door into the pre-dawn New Mexico air. In the parking lot she spied Diesel under a street light, in the form of a red '05 Dodge Viper. At her approach, he flashed his high beams and revved his engine so loud it was almost deafening. Suri smiled.

"Morning, Dee." The headlights flashed again. "Rest well?" two flashes. "Let's get out of here. I know you need to stretch." There was a popping noise and the driver's side door swung open. Suri climbed in and the Viper sped out of the parking lot and onto the highway.

The eastern horizon was just beginning to glow with a grey light when Diesel pulled off the highway and down a backroad that led to an area shielded by low hills. The stars had disappeared hours ago and the sky was totally black. This was the perfect time for Diesel to transform. Suri climbed out of the car. As soon as her feet touched the sandstone ground, there was the sound of metal grinding against metal. She turned to where a few seconds ago there had been a small sports car. She had to crane her neck to see the two-story tall robot that had taken its place. Diesel tilted his head back and sighed- a sound that reminded Suri of a car being crushed in a compressor.

"It feels like forever since I stood up last." He said, his accented, metallic voice reverberating through the sandstone and into Suri's chest. She smiled apologetically from her perch on a rock.

"I know and I'm sorry, but we had to keep going to get out of Boulder yesterday. It's just not safe with such a large population." Diesel crouched so Suri wouldn't have to crane her neck as much.

"Su, we need to talk about where we have to go from here." Su was her nickname, which Diesel only used when he was being serious.

"Okay, shoot."

I lost Starscream's signal yesterday, as you know, and haven't been able to pick it up again, which would lead me to think that he might be off-planet." Suri nodded. "Earlier this morning I intercepted another signal." He paused for Suri to respond.

"Where's it coming from?"

"A remote island in the Indian ocean." Suri stiffened. Now she understood why Diesel was being so serious. She didn't respond. "I understand your uneasiness, Su, but the signal was from an Autobot. And I have good reason to believe it was from one of my team." Decades ago, before Diesel had crashed to Earth, he'd been part of a team of six, including himself. Then a year before he'd met Suri, they were separated when Diesel's navigation system was thrown off by the magnetic poles of Saturn and Jupiter.

Suri pulled her motorcycle jacket tighter around her shoulders. She thought for a moment and sighed. She hated the ocean, but Diesel's team might be there. She knew this business was about sacrifices and she had to be readily prepared to make those. And they could use the extra help.

"Are you within comm range?" she asked running a hand though her thick black hair.

"No. But if we make it to the California line I'll see what I can do." Suri rubbed her hands together, eager to get back on the road again.

"Alright, let's roll." She paused, "Umm…Diesel?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you please ask for a rendezvous on the mainland?"

"Sure, Suri." He said, shifting back into the red Viper. Suri could hear the smile in his voice. She just rolled her eyes and got into the passenger seat.

**Indian Ocean, Coordinates: Classified**

Major Lennox was sweating. As was the rest of his team, and they had good reason. They could not get this wrong; too much was resting on this. He motioned for his two scouts to move ahead.

"Okay, guys, I want this op watertight. Everybody got that? Water-tight." There was a chorus of 'yes sir's' and 'copy that's' before there was a sporadic series of movements. The scouts moved fifteen yards ahead of the rest of the team and sighted up through their rifle optics. Through his night vision goggles, Lennox saw the discreet hand gesture that said all was clear. In a barely audible whisper that was the result of too many Black Ops missions, he ordered the second wave to move in. The four soldiers moved five yards ahead of the first two.

"All clear, Major. No targets in sight." Lennox inwardly cursed himself. What were they playing at?

"Alright, everybody watch your six. They're here." There was a moment of unsteady silence, broken intermittently by men breathing heavily. Lennox felt his heart pounding in his chest. This wasn't like them at all.

"Okay, Gamma, move up. Delta at their three, Epsilon, their nine. Everyone else, fan out. I want this over with yesterday." There was a hustle of quiet movement. The three teams created a semi-circle five yards ahead of the Beta team. The remaining soldiers formed two lines where the semi-circle ended. Ahead of the group was a wide plain of nothing but open space and grass. There, they waited, crouched like apes with guns. If there was anything Lennox hated, it was the long, slow silence before the eruption of combat.

"Major Lennox, I have two inbound enemy contacts, sir. Coming up fast on our ten." Said a soldier after what seemed like hours.

"Hold fire." Lennox could practically feel his men gripping their triggers in anticipation.

"Coming in hot, sir, two-hundred meters."

"Hold." He could hear the engines revving as the targets picked up speed.

"One hundred meters."

"Hold."

"Fifty meters."

"Hold." He could see them now, just on the other side of the plain and approaching rapidly.

"Thirty meters."

"Hold."

"Fifteen meters, sir."

"Hold." He was going to wait until the last possible second.

"Five meters, sir!"

"Hold." There was one meter between them now and it was closing fast. This was where everything looked as if it were playing out in slow motion. He felt himself shout the order to fire at will and saw his men unload several magazines' worth of bullets into the oncoming targets. But they kept coming. The targets were on top of them, and then they were flying over their heads. He shouted to get down. Before they could even get up, Lennox felt a heavy, metal hand roll him over. He was looking into the smiling face of Skids.

"You are out, yo! Yeah! You can't hit me! I'm too fast for yo punk ass!" The crazy Autobot continued on like this. Lennox groaned. He'd never hear the end of it now. He sat up and watched as the Autobot twins did their ridiculous little victory dance and bumped chests.

"That's twins: seventeen, humans: one." Reported a voice on a loudspeaker. "Pack it up, Major, that's enough for one day." Lennox nodded and held up his right thumb, saying he understood. He called out to his group and they all started walking back to the base.

"Take it easy guys; we'll get 'em next time." They hadn't taken two more steps when alarms started going off. It threw the group of soldiers into defense mode. They all began to spin around wildly looking for the source of the disturbance. An automated voice sounded over the loudspeaker.

"Unauthorized signal intrusion! Unauthorized signal intrusion! Major Lennox, report to hangar 1-A! Major Lennox, report to hangar 1-A!" On instinct, Lennox began to sprint for the airstrip that led to the cluster of military hangars and barracks. It took him several minutes to reach the 1-A hangar, which was buzzing with alarms and signal analysts. Computers sat in rows, humming, adding to the noise. Moving over to a switch on the wall, he shut down the alarm and the red flashing lights. The hangar became quiet.

"What've we got?" he asked of anyone. For a moment no one moved. "What've we got?! Come on people, talk to me!" From the back row of the computers, a voice called;

"Major, back here." Lennox moved between the large monitors until he saw a slight boy no older than nineteen, sitting at one of the computers, wide, green eyes glued to the screen.

"What's your name, son?"

"Chase, sir. Chase Harris."

"Alright, Harris, what's the problem?"

"Well, sir, we've detected a short wave signal radiating from a small moving point somewhere near the Arizona-California line. There appears to be a sort of encryption in the signal but I can't figure out exactly what its saying."

"Pull up what you've got so far."

"That's that thing, sir; I haven't gotten past the original symbols that were encrypted in the first place."

"Okay, pull up the symbols you've got so far." Repeated Lennox in exasperation.

"Yes sir." With a few taps of the keyboard, Harris was able to pull up several cross-referencing windows with symbols being compared with a range of dead languages. Lennox recognized the symbols immediately. He turned back to Harris.

"Are you cross referencing these with the Cybertronian database?" Harris paused.

"Not yet…sir."

"Well, that sounds like a good idea to me. How 'bout you?"

"It does, sir." As Harris began his work pulling up the small database they had compiled on the Cybertronian language, Lennox turned to the other assembled analysts.

"Okay, while he's doing that, somebody alert the Autobots. For all we know this could be a rouge Decepticon trying to find us and win favor with Megatron. Go." There was a bustle of movement as Lennox turned back to Harris. "Have those transferred to the big screen at the JCS comm station, will you."

"Yes sir." He could see the look in Harris' eyes that said he didn't get paid enough for his talents in this job. Lennox smirked, he'd wise up sooner or later.

He made his way out of hangar 1-A, toward the largest building on the property. It was already glowing with blue and yellow light which told him that the Autobots had been informed promptly after his order had been given. That pleased him. It meant that in the face of something more serious, they'd be ready faster. Once inside, Lennox saw that Optimus Prime was already examining the symbols on the largest LCD flatscreen mounted on the fifty foot tall catwalk. At his approach, the Autobot leader looked up at him.

"Good evening, Major." He greeted in his grinding, metallic voice. Lennox nodded his head in response.

"Evening. Are you understanding any of this?" He asked climbing the stairs to the top of the catwalk. Optimus looked back at the screen and made a contemplative noise, or what Lennox interpreted to be a contemplative noise.

"Not the language itself, but the signal-print looks very familiar."

"How much has been translated?" Lennox asked the assistant comm chief.

"Almost all, but it's patchy, some of these symbols we don't even have in the database."

"Pull it up." At his command, a small paragraph with blank holes appeared on the monitor in front of him. He read it, a bit confused.

'_Now at… holding point… respond… Prime… Cortez… human female…. guardian… Decepticon… off-planet…' _It repeated itself over and over. Lennox shook his head.

"Its gibberish, none of these words has any important meaning." He started chewing on his knuckle, a nervous habit he'd picked up in Afghanistan. "Can you open up another cross reference? They might be using other languages symbols and mixing it with Cybertronian." The comm chief nodded and expanded the reference field. Nothing matched.

"Major, I may know what the problem is." Offered Optimus. Lennox nodded. "We have only given you the most recent adaptation of our language for your database. It is possible that whoever is sending out the signal is using an older dialect."

"Do you know it?"

"Only a minor knowledge, but it might help to fill in some of these blank spots." By this time, Lennox was willing to try anything. He turned to the comm chief and nodded.

It was nearly midnight before most of the message had been decoded. But all the same, Lennox read and re-read the message in awe. It wasn't at all what he had expected.

'_Now at 32 deg.43' N, 114 deg.37' W Holding point west. Respond immediately. Request audience with Optimus Prime. Reporting: Diesel, Cargo: Suri Cortez, human female, victim of Decepticon attack. Lost signal. Assuming off-planet. Respond immediately.' _

" Can we check these coordinates?"

"Already done, sir. Yuma, Arizona. I pulled up everything we have on a Cortez, Suri as well, sir." That made Lennox swell with pride. He didn't even have to ask anything and the order would be done. These were good men and women here.

"And?"

"Over a million Cortez's living in the U.S. at the moment, sir. Filtering for possible Decepticon contact, and…got one. North Carolina address, Christina and Miguel Cortez, says here they died back in 2004 after a Raptor jet crashed into their house."

"Any children?"

"One daughter, a Suri Alaina Cortez, was reported missing after her parent's funeral."

"Great work. Send back a response. Say that we're prepared to meet them at Long Beach Naval Complex tomorrow. Stress that _we_ will meet them."

**Ok, first chapter for ya. The rest of my chapters may or may not be this long, I haven't decided yet. Anywho, plz review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Just South of Los Angeles, California**

"Suri? Suri! Wake up!" Diesel shouted at maximum volume. Suri yelped and jumped about an inch out of her seat. She'd fallen asleep for the last two hours of their journey, because Diesel had refused to stop at a motel for the night. Although she had to admit, nowadays, she could sleep better in a car than any bed. Outside the sky was dark and dotted with stars.

"Suri, we're almost there. You remember what to do?" Suri rubbed the sleep from her eyes and yawned.

"I stand there like a good girl and let you do all the talking, Diesel, chill out, you've only told me this about a hundred times." She gave the dashboard a fond pat. "Relax; I know what I'm doing."

"Now if I had a gram of energon for every time I heard that come out of your mouth, I'd be set for eternity." Suri rolled her eyes for maybe the thousandth time that day. You tended to fall into a habit when you lived on the road with a sarcastic alien robot for five years.

"Diesel, seriously, all we're doing is meeting your old team and some army people, what could go wrong?"

"Well, everything, now that you've said it." Suri stuck her tongue out at the radio, even though she knew Diesel couldn't see it. It was true that she was the one who usually got into trouble and Diesel was the one who had to save both of them, but that didn't mean she couldn't resent it. A car passed them; Suri instinctively put her hands on the steering wheel.

"Su, you're sure about this?" No, she wasn't. She felt the familiar prickle run up her spine that said this wouldn't turn out like they thought it would. As usual, she ignored it.

"Yes, Dee. Very sure." Then she had a thought. "Are _you_ sure about this." She thought she heard Diesel snort, but that might have been the bump they just drove over.

"If you're sure, absolutely not." Again, she knew when Diesel was smiling, after five years you learned to pick up on stuff like that.

"Can I have a serious answer, please? I gave you a serious answer." She knew Diesel would pick up on the edge she'd put in her voice. He did.

"Okay, honestly, I have my guard up. I do hope it's my team, but after, what, six years, I'm not looking for any miracles." That was Diesel for you: hard reality, no dreamy fantasizing about happily-ever-after's.

"Spoken like a true Autobot warrior." Suri complemented, patting the dashboard again. She was sure that Diesel was going to say something else, but before he could, another voice crackled over the radio.

"Unauthorized Autobot, you are entering guarded area one-oh-five-seven: Long Beach Naval Reserve. State your name and personal allegiance." Suri took a breath; this was what Diesel had told her to repeat back to him over and over today.

"This is Diesel, Cybertronian Armada, second lieutenant, section two-six-nine-one, and charge, Suri Cortez requesting diplomatic rendezvous with Optimus Prime and NEST representatives." She said in that one breath. The stereo was silent then crackled again.

"Request accepted. Turn right at next gate." Instructed the voice. Suri sighed and reclined back in her seat. In a voice that was supposed to be a whisper, Diesel said,

"Nice work." They were approaching an open chain-link fence gate. Looking up, Suri saw that there was barbed wire criss-crossing at the top. That meant no plausible escape once they were in. Suri swallowed heavily. The pair pulled into an apparently abandoned military yard. Nothing was there, nothing moving anyway. Still, Suri felt that they weren't alone, she felt on edge. Then, the entire yard lit up with blinding white light. On instinct, Suri reached for her gun.

"Easy, Su. One wrong move and we're dead." So, against her intuition, Suri let her hand fall into her lap. She could tell that her guardian was edgy too.

"You! Step out of the vehicle!" Said a voice from outside as the yard swarmed with armed soldiers. Suri couldn't tell where the voice was coming from.

"Do what he says." Said Diesel. Moving very slowly, with her hands above her head, Suri opened the door and slid out of the driver seat. From her place, she could now see six cars among army personnel. A black GMC Topkick, a red Chevy Trax, a green Chevy Beat, a lime green search and rescue Hummer, a silver Corvette Stingray, and a blue, flame-embossed Peterbuilt. She could only assume that these were other Autobots. She looked on in awe. The most they'd hoped to find were two, three at the best, but definitely not six. A soldier came up to her, gun pointed right at her face.

"Suri Cortez?"

"Yes."

"Are you armed?"

"Browning Hi-Power. Left holster."

"That's your guardian?" she nodded "Tell him to transform slowly." Without looking at Diesel she said,

"Hama tupu." She heard the sound of grinding metal. She and Diesel had come up with their own code while they were on the road. Just some phrases that said if one of them was in trouble or not. For instance; 'hama tupu' meant to transform with caution and to be on guard. The soldier that had come up to her gave her a strange look, then trained his gun at Diesel.

"You do know that if you kill one of us, the other will do our best to kill the rest of you." The soldier looked back at her then back at Diesel.

"Control your charge, Autobot." He said, lowering his weapon and summoning four more soldiers. Diesel crouched so he could look the man in the eye.

"Her threat is not unfounded, soldier, what she says is true. So mind who you're pointing your weapon at." Inside, Suri was about to die. The look on this guy's face was priceless! He'd probably never been threatened by one of the good guys before.

Somewhere in the midst of all these soldiers, someone shouted 'Okay!' and again Suri heard the familiar sound of grinding metal. But instead of it being Diesel who was transforming, it was the other six cars. She watched as six metal giants rose from the sea of dazzle print camouflage. The tallest, which was almost a story taller than her guardian, transformed from the blue, flaming Peterbuilt. She looked up at Diesel, who was smiling, looking from robot to robot. On the ground, the soldiers parted to let the Autobots pass through their ranks. As the tall one kept coming closer, Suri leaned farther and farther back trying to keep his face in view. Eventually, she stumbled back and caught herself on Diesel's ankle joint. He looked down at her, that robot grin splitting his face. She had to smile, too.

"Cortez!" called a soldier to her left. "The Major wants to talk to you." He began to walk in the opposite direction.

"Where exactly?" she asked, still untrusting as ever. The soldier turned back to her and gave her a knowing smile; he obviously knew what her uneasiness was about. He pointed to a man at the front of the sea of armed soldiers, wearing a burgundy beret with the symbol for the United States Armed Forces stitched on it. Noticing her, he waved. He looked okay enough, so she patted Diesel's foot.

"I'm going over there, Dee, I'll stay in sight." She informed him. He nodded and she turned to go, but she felt him gently flick her in the back. Gentle or not, it made her stumble.

"Su, hakuna shida." He ordered. It was more of their code. Suri rolled her eyes. Ever the guardian, he was telling her to be good.

"Kupumzika, Dee." Again more code, saying chill out. She turned on her heel and strode up to the man the other soldier had pointed out. He extended a polite hand and Suri grasped it.

"Major William Lennox, good to meet you." She nodded.

"Suri Cortez, the pleasure is all mine, Major."

"Forgive me, but how old are you?" Suri could have laughed at the look on his face. He was chivalrous, this one, and she found that redeeming, but hilarious all the same.

"Seventeen, last December."

"Dear, God-- and you have a Browning?" he asked as if it was taking him a while to process that one, insignificant fact. Suri shrugged.

"It was my old man's. You'd be surprised how often I've had to use it. And he doesn't need it now anyway." The Major held out his hand for the gun. Suri didn't budge.

"You can remove the magazine yourself if that'll help." It didn't help at all, but it was one step closer to actual trust. Turning, so that only her side was visible to Lennox, she unzipped her motorcycle jacket and retrieved the gun from its holster under her left armpit. Beneath her tank top, the symbols seemed to glow with a blue light. It was a habit not to show anyone the symbols, hence the black gloves she wore even in the hottest weather. She zipped her jacket back up and removed the magazine without even looking at the gun. Then she handed it over.

"Just don't drop it." Lennox nodded and examined the weapon.

"Nine millimeter. What's the magazine capacity?"

"Thirteen rounds." Lennox gave her an incredulous look. She just stared back. "That's what the guy at the gun store told me." He whistled and handed the gun back to her. She jammed the magazine back into its chamber. An awkward silence fell between them. Suri hated awkward silences, almost as much as she hated open water. Before either of them could fill the silence, it was broken by a high-pitched screech, like nails being scraped down a chalkboard. Suri turned just in time to see her guardian fall to the ground and the tallest Autobot push another one back. She ran over to him, Browning still in her hand. The yard had erupted into chaos. The soldiers were in a frenzy, they didn't know where to point their guns.

"Hey, hey!" shouted Lennox, confronting the team of other Autobots, while Suri made it around to Diesel's head.

"Diesel, you okay?"

"Yeah, m'alright." He replied with a bit of strain in his voice. "I forgot how hard my brother could hit." Suri blinked.

"You always told me your brother was dead."

"I thought he was." There was a rumble from the other line of Autobots. Suri looked up and saw the black one come forward.

"Thought I was dead, did you, little brother?" He began to move forward faster. "I'll show you how dead I am!!" He was running toward Diesel. Hardwired instinct made Suri lift her gun and shoot. She fired once-twice-three times, it didn't do any good.

"Ironhide! Ironhide, stop!" came Lennox's voice out of the chaos. He came up beside Suri, between Diesel and the Autobot he'd just called Ironhide. Said Autobot skidded to a stop a few yards from where they stood. Suri still held her gun in firing mode.

"Tell him to back off." She muttered to Lennox, who tried to get her to lower the gun. She turned on him instead. "Tell him to back off now!" her voice was dangerously low, a trait that came into play only when she was seriously considering shooting someone. Lennox had his hands by his head, his eyes were wide. Apparently, the guy had never been threatened by a seventeen year old girl before. Keeping his movements slow, he turned to Ironhide.

"Stand down, Ironhide." Out of the corner of her eye, Suri saw the black Autobot return, however reluctantly, to his place beside the tall one. By now Diesel was on his feet and was trying to separate Suri and Lennox.

"Wacha, Suri, tulivu ni." After a few breath-held moments, she did lower the Browning. Diesel turned to Lennox. "Let me talk to her for a moment, Major." But Lennox wasn't looking at Diesel, or at Suri, he was staring at her exposed shoulder. In the weak light, the symbols blazed like a neon sign screaming: _'Look at me! I'm a freak!!'_ Quickly, Suri yanked her jacket back over her shoulder, but the damage had already been done. Lennox turned to the other Autobots, who, until now, had been silent. The tall one spoke in the deepest voice Suri had ever heard.

"She has been exposed to Decepticon radiation, a lot of it." In two massive steps, he was towering over Suri. She shrank back against Diesel's leg. It wasn't like she was afraid or anything, it was that this bot was so big. In a hushed voice, Diesel introduced him.

"That's Optimus Prime, my commanding officer." Ah, that made sense. Diesel scooped her up in his hand and lifted her until she was at his eye level. In a slightly louder voice, he introduced her.

"Sir, this is my charge, Suri Alaina Cortez." Optimus Prime looked at her with what Suri thought was a critical stare. Then he spoke in that booming voice of his.

"Your guardian speaks very highly of you." Suri smiled and was about to say something in response when he added. "He neglected to mention you were so violent, though." Suri had to admit, she had that coming. It was something that never failed to arise when she met someone new. She was ready with an explanation.

"Sir, I don't think I would have survived for five years on the road if I wasn't overly protective of myself and my guardian." For a moment, the military yard was silent and Optimus was still as a statue. Then he smiled, it wasn't at all what Suri was expecting. She'd always been criticized for not giving people the _"benefit of a doubt"_.

"Well, said, fleshling." He turned to the Autobot who'd changed from the day-glo green hummer, who had just appeared at his side. "Ratchet, my medical officer." He introduced, Suri nodded in acknowledgement. "Your diagnosis?"

"My preliminary, superficial scan shows she has a profoundly strong outer structure. More so than any human I've ever encountered."Noticing Suri's bewildered look, he added. "I scan everyone we come into contact with. Superficially, of course, to see whether or not they carry any weapons. It's also useful to detect any lapses in truth." After a pause, almost as an afterthought, he asked. "May I see the markings again?" Suri turned to Diesel.

"Ndio." He said with a nod. Turning back to the med bot, Suri removed her gloves and held up her hands for him to see. There was a long silence while he took in the miniscule symbols that spiraled up her fingers. After some time, he turned back to Optimus and said.

"It is very interesting, but I'd have to get her back to the lab before I can run a full diagnostic."

"Then she should come with us, if, of course, she so chooses." Suri turned to Diesel, pulling her gloves back on. Diesel shrugged, Suri shrugged back.

"Kuamua." She said. Diesel looked contemplative for a moment.

"Hakika, what do we have to lose?" Suri grinned.

"We'll go with you." Optimus nodded, first at her then at Lennox on the ground. At that signal, the Major began barking orders.

"Okay, let's pack it up! Get the C-17's ready! I want wheels up in twenty!!" Diesel set Suri down again and she approached Lennox.

"Sorry about that earlier." She said, holding out a hand. Lennox looked at it for a second, then grasped it firmly.

"You gave us a fair warning. Ironhide has a bit of a temper, if you hadn't noticed." Suri decided internally that he was ok. Still, it didn't mean that she'd let her guard down for a second around him, or any of them.

During the plane ride, Suri sat next to Lennox and struck up a conversation with someone who called himself Fig. He was like the Major, only a bit more laid back. And he spoke Spanish, Suri's main tongue. She'd been brought up as a bilingual child, but her father spoke Spanish, so Suri did as well.

"…y disparó contra nosotros!" she exclaimed, finishing a story she'd been telling. Fig laughed.

"Lo que un asno! Lo que le ocurrio?"

"Yo le disparó entre los ojos." They both burst into laughter. Lennox looked across the cargo bay at a black man he called Epps.

"Great, now there's two of them." Suri and Fig laughed louder.

**Ok, the first person who can tell me what language Suri and Diesel's code is in, I'll review a story of their choice. HINT: it's a real earthly language. Send me a PM or a review with your guess. Good luck!  
Note: I will not always update this fast; I've been snowed in at my house for a few weeks and had nothing to do.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ello, ello, ello! Congrats to Kellyhorse for guessing that the code language is Swahili! For those who guessed Spanish, that's when she's talking to Fig, not Diesel. Enjoy!**

_Suri took hold of another outcrop, hoisting her lean body up another foot or so. She had climbed this mountain so many times; she knew every jutting stone and jagged precipice better than her own hand, which she moved up to another handhold. Normally she climbed with Miguel, her father, but he was at the house with her mother, Christina, who was eight months pregnant with her baby brother. She was due any day now, so her dad was with her, waiting. _

_After several more synchronized hand-foot movements, Suri pulled herself up and over the edge of the flat-topped summit of, as the locals called it, the Third Devil. The usual sense of accomplishment washed over her as she inhaled deeply, smelling the heady scents of fall, while she turned slowly to take in the sights of her hometown. To the west she could see the Sugartop condominiums, now empty of the tourists who would flock to Sugar Mountain for skiing, ice skating and tubing in a few months. To the southwest was Grandfather Mountain, and to the east was Pisgah National Forest. She completed her circle and was looking back to the northwest, towards her house, when something caught her eye. It was a long black trail in the sky, like a line a jet would leave behind. It looked rather short and after a few minutes, it didn't get any longer like it should have. Then she realized that she could make out what looked like an air force fighter jet at the head of the black line. The line wasn't getting any longer because she was looking at it foreshortened. The jet was headed straight for the side of the mountain….and her house. _

_Her heart dropped into her stomach as adrenalin flooded her system, and she started looking for an easier way down. The mountain was almost vertical on all sides, she would have to climb down and that would take at least twenty minutes and by then, if her quick calculations were even remotely correct, it would be too late. She started to climb anyway, sliding most of the way, which was a bad idea. She tripped and fell at least twenty feet. The pain in her arms dulled by the need to reach her home before the jet, she continued her half-slide half-frantic run down the nearly perpendicular slope. Then an explosion made the solid ground underneath her buck and roll. Rock and dirt flew into her face with a force that felt like a hurricane gale and she heard the sound of trees splintering. Something solid and sharp hit her squarely in the head, knocking her into unconsciousness with the lullaby of screeching metal and the beginnings of a fire playing in the background._

"Major!" called one of the soldiers from across the hold of the plane. He motioned for Lennox to come to him immediately. He took a glance at Suri, fast asleep in her seat beside him, dreaming, and got up. His comrade turned the screen of his laptop around so that Lennox could see it. "I was doing some digging on Cortez over there and you need to see what I found." He held out the computer to Lennox, who stared at it blankly.

"What am I looking at, Corporal?" It looked to him like just a bunch of connecting lines, and, if he squinted at it, little squiggles showed up in between the lines.

"It's a family chart, Major. Sorry, Sir, I'm near-sighted." He added noticing Lennox's difficulty in reading the miniscule font. "Of the Witwicky family."

"As in Sam Witwicky?"

"Yes Major. And that," he pointed to a spot on the chart that Lennox could barely read. "Is Cortez's mother. Christina Witwicky now Christina Cortez."

"So Suri is Sam's cousin?" He tried to keep the skepticism out of his voice. He honestly couldn't have called that in a million years.

"That's what it looks like, Sir."Lennox looked back at Suri, searching her face for some sort of family resemblance. It had been almost a year since he'd seen Sam, but he was pretty sure he looked the same. Still he could see nothing in appearance that connected this girl to Sam Witwicky.

He needed to know for sure.

"I need to borrow your computer, Corporal." The soldier handed the laptop over to him without asking questions. Lennox looked at the screen for a moment before handing it back to the corporal. He tapped a few keys and handed it back to the major, who could now read the screen quite clearly. "Thank you."

"No problem, Sir." Lennox took the computer back to his seat. Suri stirred beside him. He could see her eyes moving behind her eyelids. Was she having a dream, or was she remembering the day that her entire life went to hell? He shrugged and began typing. When he was done, there was no signal to send the electronic mail, so he put it on standby to send on the next available Wifi wave. Closing the laptop, he leaned back to catch a few elusive hours of sleep, but not before taking one last glance at the young woman sitting beside him, and noticing how much older than seventeen she looked. He thought he could already see some white hairs mingling with the black on her head.

'_That could be your daughter. That could be Annabelle one day.' _No, he had promised himself, that wouldn't happen to his family. That's why he was doing what he was doing.

He pushed the thought from his head and closed his eyes.

**Philadelphia, Pennsylvania **

Sam Witwicky sat at his laptop doing research for a homework assignment. Well, he was _trying_ to do research for an assignment. He kept nodding off and rereading the same sentence over and over. It had been a while since he'd gotten any kind of decent sleep. Every time he put his head on the pillow he heard massive explosions and a dazzling white light lit the backs of his eyelids. It didn't sound like much but he always woke up with cold sweat slicking his forehead and making his clothes cling to his body.

'_The cat's eye nebula is an extraordinary example of what was previously…_' Dammit! There he went rereading that same stupid sentence. He wished it was already Christmas break. It was so close, he could taste it. He needed a few weeks to catch his breath. If not to just get away from his bigheaded roommate. Since the events in Egypt a year ago, Leo was, for want of a better word, suffering from a head full of hot air. He considered it was because of his 'Masterful skills' that they won the victory against the Decepticons. And every night, when he eventually got back from some girl's room, he'd tell Sam that he realized how short life was and that he should live to the fullest while he could. Sam knew it was all just a gimmick for the ladies.

'_The cat's eye nebula is an extr…' _Gahhh! Sam slammed his head on his desk harder than he intended and winced. He really needed a break. He looked outside, where it was snowing lightly. He got up and scribbled a quick note to Leo saying he was out for a walk and would be back soon. Not that Leo would be back before Sam but, it was the polite thing to do.

Outside, it was wonderfully quiet. The snow muffled all the sounds of the campus. It reminded him of what Mikaela had asked him just before he'd left for college, if he could survive the winters here without her, which he couldn't. Otherwise he wouldn't be going home for Christmas. He certainly wasn't going home just to see his parents. His mom called him every waking minute of every day.

Entering the courtyard, he saw a young couple, a few years older than himself. They were making a snowman. As Sam watched, he saw the man put something into the snowman's twig hand. He tapped the woman on the shoulder and pointed it out to her. She took it and opened it. When she turned around again, the man was on his knee. There were a few moments where the two just stayed as they were. Then the woman squealed and threw her arms around the man. Sam smiled to himself. That was what he'd always planned for himself and Mikaela. But he couldn't do it yet. He couldn't afford a ring, let alone a wedding. It'll happen, he kept telling himself, just not yet.

He walked back to the room with high spirits, ready to finish his assignment. When he opened the door, he saw his computer screen blinking and the icon of an envelope opening and closing over and over. He had an e-mail. Intrigued he clicked on the icon, noticing that the e-mail was from an address that he didn't recognize, he read it once anyway. It was very short.

_Plans for Christmas break? You may want to cancel them. - Lennox _

He re-read it several times and still couldn't make any sense of it. Just when he was about to give up on figuring it out, Leo flew through the door holding his cell phone in his hand.

"Dude, Simmons just called me! He says that NEST was on the move yesterday -"

"Shhhhhh!" Sam hushed his roommate and motioned for him to shut the door to their shared apartment. "Paper-thin walls, remember?" Leo paled and slammed the door closed.

"Sorry, forgot." He carried on in a quieter voice. He moved over to Sam's desk and sank down in one of the mismatched dining room chairs. "But he says NEST was on the move yesterday. They took off from their base and touched down in Los Angeles, and stayed there for at least six hours." Sam said nothing. Instead he turned the computer screen towards Leo and let him take it in. He didn't know that someone with Leo's complexion could turn so white so fast.

"So…" he trailed off to let Leo finish his thought, but his cell phone rang. The caller ID showed a picture of Mikaela. Sam answered immediately. "Hey, Beautiful."

"_Sam, something's up here."_ There was an urgency in her voice that Sam only heard when they faced any kind of mechanized terror, i.e. Decepticons.

"Why, what's wrong?" Sam stood up, getting a worried look from Leo.

"_I think there's another Autobot in LA, like besides Bee."_ Sam didn't reply for a moment. This had to be a joke, but Mikaela wouldn't joke about something like this. _"Sam? Hello, Sam, you there?"_

"Right here, Babe. Hang on, I'm gonna put you on speaker." He pushed the button and held the phone between his head and Leo's.

"_Hey, Leo."_ Greeted the voice of Sam's girlfriend from the other end of the line. _"Are you sure this line is secure?"_

"Positive, Lennox gave me this phone. It's as secure as any of the army's outgoing transmissions." Sam assured her. "What about another Autobot?"

"_I was leaving the shop last night, and I took Interstate four-ten. I had to pass this car that was going like five miles under the speed limit. I looked into the driver's seat and this girl didn't have her hands on the wheel."_ Mikaela gasped with excitement, as she had told the entire three sentences in one breath, but Sam didn't see what was so great about it.

"Babe, plenty of people take their hands off the steering wheel while they're driving. Like if they're showing off or if their hands get sweaty." Sam tried to rationalize

"_Do they talk to their radios, too?"_ She asked in an irritated tone. Sam mentally slapped himself. Mikaela was very observant; she wouldn't have called him if all she had seen was some teen driving recklessly. _"Sam her hands weren't just off the wheel for a few seconds. She was talking to someone and she definitely talks with her hands."_

"And there was no one in the backseat? That you saw, of course." This time, Sam wasn't trying to bring her down, he was just being thorough.

"_Oh-five Vipers don't have backseats, and there was no one in the seat beside her."_ She declared. Sam decided he'd better tell her about the e-mail and Leo's phone call.

"Mikaela, listen, I just got an e-mail not two minutes ago from Lennox. He says that I need to cancel my Christmas break plans. And that coming from him means something is up with NEST." He nodded at Leo to tell his bit.

"Yeah, yeah, and Simmons called me right before Sam got that e-mail. He said that the NEST team was on the move or whatever." If Sam didn't know Leo better, he'd think the guy was hyperventilating, but he knew that his roommate was just getting excited over the thought of more alien interactions. "He said they went to the Long Beach Naval yard and lifted off a-" he stopped because Mikaela had let out a small gasp.

"_Long Beach? That's only about an hour and a half from where I saw the girl."_ Sam turned to look at Leo.

"Okay, this has gone from minor to blown out of the water real fast." Leo nodded. "What time did Simmons say they lifted of the base?"

"Uh, nearly dawn this morning, so about four or five California time." He said. Leave it to Simmons to get all the details from his contacts, whoever they were. What time did Lennox send you that e-mail?" Sam went to his computer and brought the one sentence of type onto the display screen.

"About five forty-five this morning, California time. So, it was sent after takeoff. They should have landed by now-" As soon as he said it, the computer bleeped signaling another e-mail had been received. He could hear his girlfriend's voice on the phone that was in Leo's hand.

"She wants to know what's going on." Sam held up a finger as he clicked on the icon that said 'open'. He motioned for Leo to look at the screen and the single sentence that was on it, again.

_Will send a plane to pick you up, send dates you are out of class. –Lennox_

**Oh I do love cliffhangers! I'm sure you all don't but that's the fun of it you see. Thanx for reviews and keep 'em comin'! And sorry about the wait, but this semester has been kicking my a-. Anyway, I luv ya all so keep on reading and writing like good little anarchists ;) **


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